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Sleep's all screwed up again. Had to stay awake an extra 8 hours or so for a family event. Came home, crashed. Woke up a few hours later, having had a (semi-)refreshing nap. Now I'm in limbo. So, for the heck of it...
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kaylle and brianamj.)
90% Barack Obama
85% Hillary Clinton
85% Joe Biden
84% John Edwards
83% Chris Dodd
81% Bill Richardson
78% Dennis Kucinich
77% Mike Gravel
51% Rudy Giuliani
43% John McCain
33% Mike Huckabee
32% Mitt Romney
23% Tom Tancredo
23% Fred Thompson
20% Ron Paul
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
Apparantly, I like Obama. That's good news. Saves me a lot of research, too. Thanks, meme!
(Snagged from
kaylle and brianamj.)90% Barack Obama
85% Hillary Clinton
85% Joe Biden
84% John Edwards
83% Chris Dodd
81% Bill Richardson
78% Dennis Kucinich
77% Mike Gravel
51% Rudy Giuliani
43% John McCain
33% Mike Huckabee
32% Mitt Romney
23% Tom Tancredo
23% Fred Thompson
20% Ron Paul
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
Apparantly, I like Obama. That's good news. Saves me a lot of research, too. Thanks, meme!
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From:
no subject
Many of those programs were ruled unconstitutional, even as they helped alleviate the crisis. Social Security is one of the few that survived.
Just to give you some context. Make of it what you will.
But... you'd accept privately run retirement investing programs if they weren't manditory? As it happens, those exist. 401(K), IRA... It's just that there's Social Security, too.
So you'd just get rid of the whole thing, then? If people haven't planned properly for the future, that's their problem, and we as a society have no obligation to help the elderly get by. Or, if they do need help, they can go to a charity. Is that how you'd have it? It's a valid viewpoint. Just trying to see what you really think/believe.
As for health care... No. I'm afraid it doesn't work like that. Before HMOs, the cost of health care was considerably higher. In fact, they were created because the rising cost of health care and traditional insurance was rapidly moving out of reach of the average worker. As things stand now, the insurance companies give the doctors whatever they feel like, even if it's at or below cost. If the doctor isn't happy with that, well, he can just not accept that insurance... and lose all the patients who have it. (And, thanks to lobbyists, there are a lot of laws protecting insurance companies and restraining doctors. To rediculous degrees.)
The other thing with insurance is that it's... insurance. Hospital visits can be very expensive. As can diagnostic testing like MRIs and treatments like surgery, chemotherapy, and dialisis. Insurance is there to protect you in case something like that comes along.
So, while I'll be the first to say that insurance companies are evil and have messed everything up for doctors and patients, I can't agree that we'd be better off without them. Not unless there was something else in place to make sure that that all patients can afford treatment... and that doctors can still get paid.
Health care should be a basic right. If you say that doctors will have to set their own rates so that they can stay in business, you'll leave the poor behind. Actually, even with insurance companies controling the costs to some degree, you still have that. People who are not quite poor enough to qualify for medicaid (the government's charity health plan, more or less) but not rich enough to be able to afford even basic insurance.
The system needs to change. Insurance companies have way too much power and they're seriously abusing it. But... no. Simply abolishing them isn't going to do it.
From:
no subject
Gee, Paul. When you put it that way, it sounds like I'm some kind of evil-vampire-dictator or something. o_O
Still, it's like the seatbelt laws that my parents are always ranting about. "Sure, it may be for my own good, but I shouldn't be *forced* to do it!"
Maybe if the worker was presented early on with an option: Do you want Social Security? Check Yes or No.
That way, it isn't like we're abandonning people who simply didn't have enough foresight. They chose their own path.
As for HC: ...it doesn't work that way? Darn. There goes my whole, magnificent plan. =/
Perhaps we could replace all doctors with robots....? Although, I guess that wouldn't work either. (Kidding about robots, btw).
Like I said, I guess I'm just naive. But still, aren't the people who *have* socialized medicine coming over *here*? o_O
That has to mean something.
From:
no subject
And, really, it comes down to a moral debate. The extent of personal freedom. Should you have the right to harm yourself? Do we, as a society, have a responsibility to shield people from dangerous mistakes, to provide a safety net, etc? I don't know that there are clear, definitive answers. A lot of fuzzy lines, more like.
As for health care... We've yet to find the perfect system. Socialized medicine solves a lot of the problems we have. But you have to do it carefully. Because, yes, it does come with some of its own problems. Or it can, anyway. And the socialized medicine system that we do have (Medicare), needs some fixing, too...
From:
no subject
Sure, there will be broken bones and pregnancies--there always are. But if we first ease the burden on public health, then maybe we can sort out the other end later without having to worry so much?
From:
no subject
I don't think health care reform is something which can really wait, though. Then again, my dad's a doctor and I'm a patient. It's kind of a priority for me...
From:
no subject